“Plausible” possible sightings of a Tasmanian tiger in north Queensland have prompted scientists to undertake a search for the species thought to have died out more than 80 years ago.

The last thylacine is thought to have died in Hobart zoo in 1936, and it is widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago.

But sightings of large, dog-like animals that are neither dingos nor foxes have persisted over the decades, despite widespread scepticism.

Recent eyewitness accounts of potential thylacines in far north Queensland have spurred scientists from James Cook University to launch a search for the animal long considered extinct.

The witnesses sound a lot more plausible than your average bigfoot hunter... in fact when I looked around a bit more, I was surprised how much relatively clear footage there is of unidentified dog-like animals that could plausibly be thylacines, even in mainland Australia. (OK, "relatively clear" compared to the usual stuff you get from bigfoot hunters - they still tend to be grainy and shot at a distance, but then it's a lot harder to get good wildlife video than a lot of people seem to think).